Talia Derby has felt defined by her breasts since the age of 13. The 27-year-old's chest grew to a size 38J, and her large breasts, she says, constantly caused both men and women to treat her differently. In high school, people even gave her the nickname "Talia with the tits." "It just kind of sucked to have my whole identity taken up by something that I didn’t necessarily want," Derby tells SELF.

It was this kind of treatment that got her thinking about breast reduction surgery, along with the fact that her breast size kept her from being active. The Salt Lake City, Utah, beauty blogger found it difficult to go for long hikes because of breast pain. "It’s really hard to stay active with that big of boobs," she says. "Hiking—I absolutely love it, but I could only go up a mile up a mountain before I was done."

Derby says she spent about 10 years debating the idea of a breast reduction, her fear of doctors always stopping her from going through with it. But this May, a friend told her she should just go for it if that's what she wanted. It was the push she needed to make an appointment with a doctor. She had a consultation in early May, and scheduled her breast reduction for June 22. "I needed it to be [quick], otherwise I would have backed out," she says.

The beauty blogger made another decision before her surgery, too: She'd share the whole experience with her more than 12,000 followers on Instagram. She wanted other women to have someone they could relate to should they choose to make a similar decision. Derby definitely wasn't alone: In 2015, more than 100,000 women in the U.S. had a breast reduction, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. But she had a hard time finding young women to chat with about the operation.

"It’s easy to find a lot of women in their 40s or people that have had kids that have [had a breast reduction], but I had a hard time finding younger adults who’ve gone through surgery who would actually respond to me and answer my questions," Derby says. "I just felt like it was a good time to do it and place to do it."

The surgery went well, and took about five hours. A typical breast reduction includes the removal of skin and the breast tissue beneath it. In Derby's case, a plastic surgeon removed a little under four pounds of tissue from her chest. Derby says she was in very little pain after the procedure, and shared an image showing her bare chest covered in scars and bandages. “Sleeping is the only time it’s ever painful, and in the car—you never realize how many bumps are in the road."

Derby's finishing up the sixth week of her recovery, and physically she's healing well. Her cup size is now around a size DD. But Derby didn't anticipate the mental effects the surgery would have on her. She penned an honest post on Instagram about how she doesn't regret the surgery, but she's struggled to adjust to her new body.

"What I usually see after most people get reductions is this outpouring of positivity that, 'I finally have the body I wanted,'" Derby says. "I feel not less feminine necessarily, but less like myself, because that was part of my identity that other people gave me at such a young age, so I just lost a part of me. I don’t regret anything I’ve done because I know these feelings will pass and I will get used to who I am now, but for right now it really sucks."

Derby's Instagram posts have gone viral, and she's already lost count of how many women have asked her questions about the procedure. Some women have even scheduled their own breast reduction consultations after talking to her. Trolls have unfortunately left hateful comments on her images, too, but Derby brushed them all off in one powerful post. She's not here for haters—she's here to make it more normal to talk about breast reductions and empower other women who decide to get the procedure.

"For whatever reason getting implants is totally fine to talk about, but getting a reduction is just a taboo subject that no one wants to discuss," she says. "And it should be discussed."